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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The latest of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is the first in an apparently two part series about the Punic Wars. In this edition Dan makes it from the early confrontations between Rome and Carthage to the second Punic war after Hannibal has crossed the Alps.

For history podcast listeners this is a real gem. There is a lot of comparative material around in podcast land. (See my post about Roman History in podcasts) One of the best comparisons is Stanford's Patrick Hunt and his Hannibal series (feed) and Dan shows his great knowledge, because he effectively sums up what Hunt needs some 5 hours of lectures for. And Dan does more. He describes the build up to the wars and he projects forward what the outcome and importance will be: Rome will be victorious and emerge as a world power.

As usual Dan improves on regular history podcast with his engaged way of telling the story, revealing the importance and bringing to life the drama. I cannot wait for the next installment to come out.

On a side note: Patrick Hunt may hit the news in the coming months. He spends the summer in the Alps digging for traces of Hannibal's trek over the Alps. If you have followed his series, you know he has a strong case for his hypothesis which pass Hannibal took and you know he finally has the permits to do the archeology. When he has his finds, National Geographic will be the first to know and publish about it. Stand by.

The most elite of the podcast reviewers (and most especially in the History genre). We use Anne is a Man! as a sort of barometer for how we are doing. Anne is a Man can assume the role of THE podcast reviewer on line; no one does it as well as he does.